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VOL 101 NUMBER 5 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1989 KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CA ar ]
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Utility Bond Vote Tuesday
Kings Mountain citizens will go to the polls Tuesday
to vote on a $9.2 million bond issue to finance im-
provements to the city's water, sewer and electric sys-
tems. The Kings Mountain City Council recently
hiked water and sewer rates, effective April 1, to help
pay off those bonds should they be approved.
The polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
Polling places are: East Kings Mountain at the Kings
Mountain Community Center, Cleveland Avenue,
where Connie Putnam is registrar and West Kings
Mountain at the National Guard Armory, Phifer Road,
where Hilda Dixon is registrar.
City Elections Chairman Becky Cook said a total of
5,472 citizens are registered to vote. Mrs. Cook de-
clined to make a guess on the number of people expect-
546 Local Citizens
Support Bond Passage
With just six days remaining until the bond referen-
dum Tuesday a committee appointed by Mayor Kyle
Smith to solicit public backing for the bond issue pack-
age was using the telephone to contact each of the 546
people who signed paid advertisements calling for pas-
sage of the bond issue.
In addition, committee members were also volunteer-
ing to transport voters to the polls and had identified
3700 households within the city which receive water
and sewer service and were attempting to reach each of
those households via telephone or through information-
al brochures.
On Feb. 7 voters in the city will be deciding on three
bond issues totaling $9.2 million. The bonds would be
used for financing improvements to the city's electric,
water and sewer systems.
Kings Mountain Bond Referendum committee
chaired by Councilman Harold Phillips met Monday
night to wrap up plans for the project. A signature ad |
with the names of 546 people appears in today's Herald
asking citizens to" Vote Yes "for bonds.
Radio spots are scheduled on WKMT Radio on
Wednesday, Feb. 1, Friday, Feb. 3 and Monday, Feb. 6
and run 10 times each day.
A Radio Call-In is scheduled Thursday, Feb. 2 from
7 until 8 p.m. and will give citizens the opportunity to
ask questions about the referendum of Mayor Kyle
Smith and City Manager George Wood. "We encourage
everyone to participate,” said Mayor Smith. «
"A television show broadcast featuring fi AGEL dis
cussing the r¢ferendum is slated for Friday, L¢b.(3 ac!
9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Jones Cable 3.and again on
Monday, Feb. 6, at 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Moderator
will be Radio Station WKMT Manager and former city
commissioner Jonas Bridges. Participants on the panel
will include Mayor Smith, Councilman Al Moretz,
chairman of the city utility committee; City Manager
George Wood, Mrs. Elizabeth Lynch, Joseph R. Smith
and Grady K. Howard.
The bond committee continues to circulate an infor-
mational brochure, "Utility Problems Don't Go Away In
The Dark".
Bomb Threats, Fight
Reported At High School
Lt. Richard Reynolds of the Kings Mountain Police
Department blames spring fever for frequent bomb
threat calls to schools during the unseasonably warm
month of January.
"Kids are wanting to get out in this spring-like
weather and are using any way to do it,", said the veter-
an detective. Police responded to a bomb threat at
Kings Mountain Senior High on Tuesday. The school
was evacuated by a fire drill, which is the customary
policy of school officials, and officers searched the
school.
Jackie Lavender, KMSHS principal, said the school
had received a couple of bomb threat calls after a scuf-
fle occurred between a group of students. Some stu-
dents were sent home Friday as a result of an incident
Thursday involving two students, one black and one
white student in a Physical Education class. "The kids
got their friends involved in the argument," the princi-
pal said. Thursday one student was suspended for 10
days. Friday, one student was suspended for five days
and some students were sent home for the remainder of
the day. Two students were suspended Monday in unre-
lated incidents.
"Faculty members were on top of the situation and
everything had settled down Wednesday," said Mrs.
Lavender.
"In cold weather you wouldn't hear too much of kids
scuffling and we never have any bomb threat calls in
the cold months," said Reynolds.
The last few days have been unseasonably warm
with temperatures reaching into the high 60s.
Predictions say temperatures will stay in the high 60s
throughout the week.
ODDITIES. occ vvie 2s rt onstares
Editorial. .......os sv sshraniane
SPOItS...c.oesnisenns
Classifieds.........
School News.....
Religion. ...ccovcuenmunansnuecncs
Engagements... ieee
38
PAGES TODAY
PLUS THREE INSERTS
ed to turn out on election day. "If the weather is good I
would think the turnout would be about 1400-1600,"
she said.
Mrs. Cook and Election Board members Willie
Marable and Jim Carroll will be at City Hall all day
Tuesday to assist with questions of voters and will post
the election returns in the lobby of City Hall. The bal-
lots will be hand-counted and Mrs. Cook estimates that
by 9 p.m. the election results will be announced.
Voters on Tuesday will receive one ballot (see sam-
ple ballot in today's Herald).
The city is seeking authority to issue $1,811,500 in
bonds for electrical system improvements. Bill Little of
Southeastern Consulting Engineers of Charlotte said the
city is presently losing electricity and potential revenue
because of low voltage on sections of its present sys-
tem. The proposed project includes upgrading of lines
and construction of a new electricity substation. City
officials say the proposed improvements should bring
the system up to a level that will provide adequate cov-
erage to customers now and in the future.
Bonds of $3,789,200 are being sought for sewer sys-
tem improvements. The sewer improvements include
the city's cost of participation in the Gaston County
Crowder's Creek treatment facility and improvements
also must be accomplished to meet state and federal de-
mands. Failure, for example, to make some of the im-
provements at the city's Pilot Creek treatment plant
Turn To Page 5-A
: GROUNDBREAKING-Silver Franchising Company broke ground for a new Silver Express conve-
nience store at East King and Deal Streets Wednesday morning. Company and city officials participating in
the ceremony were front row, Paul Smith, President of Silver Convenience Centers of North Carolina,
Mayor Kyle Smith, Council members Norma Bridges, Harold Phillips
Franchising Company President; back row, from I
ind Gregg DeSantis, Silver
‘ora left, Councilmen Ered ipger and fumes Houston and
' John Nzuity, Silver Franchising Vice President. «= "PROT O BY JEFR GRIGG :
Silver Express Breaks Ground
For $1 Million Mini-Mart In KM
Silver Franchising Company broke ground
Wednesday morning for a $1 million Silver Express mi-
ni-mart at the corner of East King and North Deal
Streets. ;
Gregg DeSantis, president of the company based in
Fredricksburg, Va., said construction will start immedi-
ately. He estimated completion date in mid-April.
Silver Express has acquired the 1 1/2 acre lot from
Warren E. Reynolds and will also occupy the present
One Hour Martinizing property once it is relocated a
few blocks up King Street. The old One Hour
Martinizing building, erected by Reynolds in 1946, will
be torn down.
Other Silver Express officials were present for
Wednesday's 11 a.m. ceremony which was followed by
a luncheon for city , county and Silver Express officials
at Holiday Inn. DeSantis called the occasion "a great
day for Silver Franchising" and took the occasion to
present the City of Kings Mountain with a plaque of ap-
preciation for their efforts in assisting with the location.
Among Silver Franchising officials present were
John Naulty, vice president; Paul Smith, president of
Silver Convenience Centers of North Carolina; Stuart
Ratcliffe, Jim McGovern, consulting engineer, Jim
- White and Bill Johns of Nesbitt Oil, gasoline suppliers;
Jim Farley and Doug Miles of Farley Construction Co.
The Kings Mountain Silver Express is one of six to
open in the Greater Charlotte area in 1989. DeSantis
said the local Silver Express will place emphasis on
customer service with a full-line delicatessen and hot
foods for both take-out and in-store dining, a bakery
and expanded grocery and beverage products in a spa-
cious, attractive, well-designed and well-lighted facility
DeSantis said each neighborhood convenience shop-
ping center, in addition to its "Silver Express" anchor
store, typically will include a laundry and dry cleaner, a
take-out pizza store, a video store and hairstyling salon.
Silver Franchising Co. has a state-of-the art training
center at its Fredericksburg headquarters, and franchis-
es training will be conducted both there and in store en-
vironments.
INSIDE... :
¢ Kiwanians Support It/2-A
v Citizens Support It/3-A
v Paper Supports It/4A
/
v Industries Support It/5-A
Industries
Use 80 Percent
Of KM Water
Eighty percent of the water sold by the City of Kings
Mountain goes for industrial use.
This week four major industrial users who will be
paying the bulk of the recent water and sewer rate hike
endorsed Tuesday's three bond issues totaling $9.2 mil-
lion for financing improvements to the electric, water
and sewer systems.
The top user of city water, outside city customer
Spectrum Yarns, uses 1.6 million gallons per day and
will see an increase of $34,000 per month from last
year's current usage which ran $44.000 per month.It
will be no April Fool's joke when we get our bill April
1,"said Bill Hutchins, Spectrum Vice President, who
said he knows the city is in need of upgrading their sys-
tem and favors approval of the bonds on Tuesday.
Hutchins estimates that 80 percent of his workforce
lives in Kings Mountain and are eligible to vote on
Tuesday. However, Hutchins says "it took 20 years for
the city to get in this shape and I just don't feel the city
should try to upgrade the system overnight. Spread the
rate hike over a 10 year period and give us more time
also to pay off the $9.2 million. I just can't understand
how the city could pass a 76% increase on to customers
left speechless with the rate hike. We really expected a
25% increase," he added.
Letters of endorsement of the bonds were written to
Mayor Kyle Smith and the City Council from Anvil
Knitwear, the city's biggest user of water inside the city
limits who uses one million gallons per day; from
Clevemont Mills, which uses one million gallons of
water per day; and by Mauney Hosiery Mills, Inc.
The increases averaged 45 percent for water and 115
percent for sewer service. The new rates are highest for
industries located outside the city limits.
Ernest Rome, Anvil executive, said his company will
be paying $15,000 more a month beginning April 1 but
that he had seen the hike coming. He said "I knew it
was going to hit us at some point" but said that ap-
proval of the bond issue is for the future of industry and
individuals. " We certainly want to see more growth in
the area and Kings Mountain needs to make improve-
ments in its utility systems”, he added.
" I hope that citizens will understand that the defeat
of this bond issue would not in anyway effect or reduce
the new water or sewer rates that must be put into effect
in April," he said in his letter. Rome asked citizens who
have a better solution to these problems to take them to
the Mayor and City Council for public airing. "I give
my full support to the referendum committee and hope
they are successful in getting across to the citizens of
Kings Mountain the importance of this referendum pas-
sage," he said.
DR. DAVID GOLDBERG
Turn To Page 5-A
Spectrum May Want To Be Annexed Into City
An official of Spectrum Dyed Yarns, the city's largest
water customer, sees annexation of the outside-city
plant as the answer to the future growth of the 17-year-
old industry and its 275 employees.
However, Bill Hutchins says the bill the firm re-
ceives April 1 for city water won't be an April Fool's
joke.
"We've talked to city management for five years and
think now with the increased water rates of $34,000 per
month that it would more than offset the property taxes
we would pay as an inside-city resident," said the com-
pany vice president.
Hutchins said the plant is getting legal guidance "on
the paperwork” and officials talked to City Manager
George Wood and other city officials who "are sympa-
thetic and are working with us to try to come up with
KM Doctor Spends Day In House
Kings Mountain internist Dr.
David Goldberg made House and
Senate calls in the General
Assembly Tuesday.
He participated in the Doctor for
a Day program as representative of
the N. C. Medical Society. The
Society takes applications and
choose a doctor for each day the
legislature is in session. Goldberg's
partner, Dr. Scott Mayse at Kings
Mountain Internal Medicine Clinic,
707 W. King St., will be Doctor of
the Day April 6.
Mrs. Goldberg accompanied her
husband to Raleigh and was lun-
cheon guest of Mrs. Marshall
Rauch.
some way to curb the 76 percent increase being im-
posed on Spectrum on April 1."
Hutchins said the rate hike came as a shock and will
hurt his company's business.
"We can't criticize Kings Mountain wanting to pass
the bond referendum but we normally price our yarn in
one year increments and we can't pass on these increas-
es to the customer,” he said, noting that "with this in-
crease we're giving up 20 percent of capacity and that
puts us in the red and it's a real problem for us," he
said.
Hutchins says Spectrum's bill from the city may
reach $78,999 a month based on current usage of water
and the plant will have to cut back buying yarn at
marginal profit. This may result in loss of jobs.
" I know Kings Mountain needs to upgrade their sys-
tem but I just don't feel they can do it overnight.
"Eighty percent of the city's water bill is carried by
three mills in the area," said Hutchins who said
Spectrum expected a 25 percent increase but not 76%.
"Spectrum is a good company and we hope we won't
have to move some of our equipment to another plant in
Hickory," he said.
He said city fathers haven't made Spectrum any
promises but are sympathetic.
"We have made a good-faith effort to discuss every-
thing in open meetings," said Wood. "We know they're
heavy increases, but given the situation with our utili-
ties, we felt we had to do it."
Executives from the city's biggest water customers
were invited to a meeting in December to discuss the
proposed rates. Those who did not attend were sent let-
ters by certified mail, which said city officials were
available to answer questions.
"T thought it a great opportunity
for us to see our government in ac-
tion," said Goldberg. His day started
at 9 a.m. and he took along his med-
ical bag and beeper while attending
the meetings in event a medical
emergency arose.
Tuesday was the first opportunity
the doctor and his wife had to see
the N. C. legislature at work. Dr. Robbery
Goldberg joined Dr. Mayse in Kings
Mountain in November 1987, mov- Murder
ing his practice from Roanoke, Va. Rape
He is a graduate of Hahnemann
Medical College in Philadelphia, Pa.
and completed his residency in in-
COMMUNITY FACTS
KM POLICE ARRESTS
Aggravated assault 52 70
1988 1987 1986 1985
112. 126
1 5 2 3
1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0
Turn To Page 2-A
FOR HOME DELIVERY OF THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD CALL 7338-7436
overnight. Spectrum is a good company. We, were just